Federal officials on Thursday brought in the manufacturers of some of the key equipment at the center of the June 22 Metrorail crash investigation, prompting a shutdown of part of the Red Line that delayed riders without much notice.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators are still trying to determine what caused the Metro crash that killed nine people and injured more than 70 when one train slammed into the back of a stopped train near the Takoma rail station.
» Metro has created a page on its Web site for victims of the June 22 crash that also has information about the investigation:
wmata.com.
They are grappling with a persistent problem: Part of the automatic train alerting system that appears to have failed to register the stopped train continues to show problems even when new equipment is used. The device removed just five days before the crash as part of routine maintenance doesn’t fix the problem, either.
But none of the 3,000 other circuits in the system that connect to such devices appears to have the same problems, Metro officials have said.
Officials from Union Switch & Signal, now owned by Ansaldo STS, visited the site of the crash with investigators Thursday, said NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz. They manufactured what is known as the “WeeZ bond” device that connects to the circuits. Neither Lopatkiewicz nor Metro officials would say if other manufacturers of the system’s components were at the site Thursday.
Officials from Union Switch & Signal, now owned by Ansaldo STS, visited the site of the crash with investigators Thursday, said NTSB spokesman Ted Lopatkiewicz. They manufactured what is known as the “WeeZ bond” device that connects to the circuits. Neither Lopatkiewicz nor Metro officials would say if other manufacturers of the system’s components were at the site Thursday.
The work meant that Metro closed the Takoma station from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., running shuttle buses to connect riders to adjacent stations as the agency has done periodically since the crash. But Metro announced the news at 5:46 p.m. Wednesday, prompting concerns that riders did not have enough notice.
Metro officials said they alerted the public as soon as they could.
The NTSB’s Lopatkiewicz said, “We’ve been working with them all along to try to make the least disruption as possible.”
Service along the Red Line will be disrupted again Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. so NTSB investigators can determine when the train operator, Jeanice McMillan, might have been able to see the train stopped ahead before she plowed into it and was killed.
Even after the Takoma station is allowed to remain open, though, Metro will continue to run all trains manually until the agency can determine the root of the problem. Metro also plans to run just one train at a time through the crash area, which will lead to regular backups throughout the Red Line.
